I'll pass about one week in Paris this summer, and I want to visit some of its bookstores. I've already got some addresses of big ones as Glbert Jeune etc., but I would also like some smaller but more specialized ones, in Greek and Roman classics and Christian works of course. Second hand bookstores will especially interest me.

The area near the Sorbonne that Gonzalo pointed to by mentioning the store Calepinus is filled with bookstores. There must be one every block. It's amazing. I almost had to buy a new suitcase in order to carry all of the great books I bought. (French language.)

If you walk around the Sorbonne, you'll discover dozens of great bookstores. Pnin has probably more Classics books than any store I've been to (except maybe Labyrinths in New York) but they are mostly new books. You should still browse it. Just across the courtyard from there is a wonderful used bookstore that specializes in used linguistics books. There is also a used bookstore on the Rue Saint-Jacques, between the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Rue de Ecoles, but I can't remember the name. I'll try to look at my journals to see if I recorded it.

I'll bet that Chad knows all the best bookstores by now. Hopefully he'll respond.

hi sorry for the late reply, for classics definitely Calepinus (by far the best classics bookstore I have ever visited, although not as big a collection as e.g. the Hellenic Book Service in London), Vrin (mostly philosophy), and the Gibert stores (when you go into Gibert Joseph, don't get tricked by going to the languages section on the top floor where they have a little classics shelf: go to the far larger classics section on level 2). The Gibert stores actually have a great classics collection, you can get some quite specialised books in there which you would expect to only find in a library. There are also rare book stores like Clavreuil which have some great classics books, I saw an Aldine Cicero volume in the window once.

For christian works, I'm not sure but near Calepinus is a bookstore called Pierre Brunet I think, it has a massive Aquinas text in the window and I think it specialises in christian books. cheers

hi, just to add some more i discovered today: the bookstore Epsilon, 33, rue de Vaugirard in the 6th is full of both grk and latin books and is worth checking out.

for rare classics books, also try Picard at 82, rue Bonaparte in the 6th, and the stores on the same street. just bought from there today the only complete latin monoling dictionary i have ever seen.

also, of the Touzot bookstores, the one which is most dedicated to classics books (including some beautiful ones: e.g. an early 1500s cicero with handpainted capitals at the start of each oration) is the one on 19, rue de Seine in the 6th. cheers